News

This article originally appeared on the Department of Biology website on Friday, March 21, 2014.

Wetlands were once considered unsightly and unusable land filled with smelly, infected water, yet today their “free” ecosystem services are hard to ignore: flood control, excess nutrient abatement, water filtration, food, and wildlife habitat.

Canada’s Freshwater in the 21st Century

Wednesday June 18th, 7-8:30pm, Room QNC 0101.

Please join us for an exciting public lecture on the subject of what major threats and challenges face us in terms of freshwater.  This lecture will kick off a Symposium Dr. Rooney is Co-chairing on the Future of research at the Experimental Lakes Area and the nature of University involvement.

This is a free event.

On June 2nd, 2014, a CBC article titled "National Conservation Plan ignores National Parks, Wilderness" was published here.  In it, Dr. Rooney is quoted regarding how far the $50 million slated towards wetland restoration by the Plan might go.  Her estimates derive from work of her Alberta colleagues.  Dr. Shari Clare and Dr.

Courtney Robichaud, intern extraordinaire, presented yesterday at the IAGLR (International Association for Great Lakes Research) 2014 meeting in Hamilton.  Her talk profiled research into the impact that European Common Reed, also known as "Phrag," is having on bird communities in Long Point, ON.  This region is a World Biosphere Reserve, a provincially significant wetland as well as an Internationally Important Bird Area.  The marshes in Long Point represent 70% of the wetlands on the north shore of Lake Erie and the greatest concentration of marsh habitat on the Great Lakes.

Courtney Robichaud, intern extraordinaire, presented yesterday at the IAGLR (International Association for Great Lakes Research) 2014 meeting in Hamilton.  Her talk profiled research into the impact that European Common Reed, also known as "Phrag," is having on bird communities in Long Point, ON.  This region is a World Biosphere Reserve, a provincially significant wetland as well as an Internationally Important Bird Area.  The marshes in Long Point represent 70% of the wetlands on the north shore of Lake Erie and the greatest concentration of marsh habitat on the Great Lakes.

Dr. Rooney's speech at the World Wetlands Day Symposium has been posted on youtube.  You can watch her describe Alberta's new wetland policy and its implementation challenges.

New position available in the Rooney Lab for a summer student. May serve as a co-op placement or a 499 project credit. See the attached job ad!

World Wetlands Day celebrates the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance  in Ramsar, Iran back on February 2nd, 1971. Although only 21 parties signed initially, now 168 are signatories to the Convention. With over 2000 wetlands designated under the Convention, over 206 million ha of wetland are now protected. Wetland-rich Canada is the nation with the largest area of RAMSAR protected wetlands: 130,000 km²!

A new note published in the journal Wetlands details a rapid assessment method we (Dustin Raab, Suzanne Bayley, and Rebecca Rooney) developed to estimate above ground biomass, using a sort of barbershop pole with red and white horizontal stripes.  Named after the rangelands researcher who first used it, the Robel pole uses visual obstruction as a proxy measure of vegetation biomass.

Dr. Michael Paterson, Senior Fellow and Research Associate at the International Institute for Sustainable Development is visiting Waterloo at the invitation of Dr. Rooney and the Water Institute. He will be presenting a talk on the legacy and future of the Experimental Lakes Area in DC 1302 at 2 pm.